TORTURE TO GITMO MONEY

Washington (WPI) - Citing the increased cost for housing and interrogation of “enemy combatant” prisoners in Gitmo in Cuba President Bush has included more than 19 million dollars in increased spending for “torture and torture related expenses,” in his 2006 budget proposal.

The item, buried deep in the Defense Department budget, indicates that recent hunger strikes by uncharged prisoners has skyrocketed the management costs at the highly concentrated POW camp.

DOD spokesman Col. Lyle Boutall said that the starvation tactics used by the Gitmo detainees were creating unusual burdens for the guards and interrogators.

“We have had to purchase special strapped chairs, bring in tons of new surgical hose- remember, everything needs to be imported to Cuba, train or troops to perform tracheotomies, the list goes on and on.”

Reporters questioned whether forced feeding was a form of torture.

"Absolutely not!” said Col. Boutall. "These enemy combatants have made the choice, of their own free will, to try and kill themselves by starvation. I have never tried it but THAT sounds like torture to me! Force feeding them is the only thing we can do to keep them alive.”

Accused by civil rights groups and international agencies like the United Nations, the Red Cross and Amnesty International of torture in violation of multiple treaties including the Geneva Convention, Col. Boutall did not deny the allegations.

“I stand behind the determinations made by Attorney General Gonzales,” he said, “According to him, the President has retained the right, and Congress gave him the authority, to torture anybody, anywhere that he thinks might be a terrorist suspect or linked in some way to a terror organization or even if they were just sold into custody by Iraqi bounty hunters.”

He added, “Look, we could send all these guys to Yemen and not have to answer any questions about it. Even with the torture and forced feeding they got it pretty good, you understand?”

As reported by the Associated Press, a recent study shows that the majority of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have never committed any "hostile acts" against the United States.

By analyzing government records of the 500+ people locked up in Cuba, lawyers Mark Denbeaux and Joshua Denbeaux estimate that 55 percent "are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition allies".

Additionally, only eight percent of the detainees were characterized as Al-Qaeda fighters. Some 60% "are detained merely because they are 'associated with' a group or groups the (US) government asserts are terrorist organizations." The lawyers claim that no proof is offered to support the “association” allegations, though the Army has asserted that much of the evidence comes as a result of the domestic “warrantless” telephone wiretapping program carried out by the NSA.

According to AP, “The lawyers, who represent two Guantanamo detainees, noted that only seven percent of the 500 detainees had been captured by US and coalition forces.

Of the rest, 47 percent were turned over to the United States by Pakistan and Afghan Northern Coalition forces, and the captors of another 44 percent were unknown.

The study suggests that at least some of these detainees were turned over to US forces by bounty hunters and reward-seekers without verification of the detainee's status.

In the wake of the October, 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, US forces offered 'millions of dollars' for the capture of Al-Qaeda and Taliban members.”

“Regardless of the source of their delivery into our hands we consider these man and children to be a threat to the United States.” said Col. Boutall. “We don’t need to answer to anyone, to justify anything. We own these guys, that’s it. If they want to talk, to confess and tell us all they know they will be treated better. If not, well, we have all the time in the world.”

In January, an army spokesman said new US Army rules for executions of military prisoners do not apply to "war on terror" detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.